The Most Controversial Claim in History: Who Did Jesus Think He Was?

Was Jesus of Nazareth just a great moral teacher, a revolutionary, or a misunderstood prophet? Or did He make a claim so radical that it cost Him His life?

In this episode of The Berean Podcast, we’re moving past the cultural "nice Jesus" to look at the historical, explosive reality of His identity. We aren't here to rely on popular opinion or the traditions of men—we’re here to do what the Bereans did: examine the scriptures daily to see if these things are so.

We’re diving deep into:

🔥 The "Blasphemy" Factor: Why did the religious leaders of the first century immediately reach for stones the moment Jesus spoke?

🔥 Divine Prerogatives: Exploring the moments Jesus claimed authority that belongs to God alone—from forgiving sins to searching the hearts of men.

🔥 The Scriptural Echoes: How the New Testament writers deliberately aligned Jesus with the titles and roles of Yahweh in the Old Testament.

🔥 The Crowd’s Reaction: Understanding why those who actually walked the dusty roads with Him were convinced He was claiming to be God.

If you’ve ever wondered why the divinity of Christ is the most debated topic in human history, this episode is for you. We’re laying out the evidence, looking at the "Red Letters," and letting the Bible speak for itself.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:04

This is the Berean Podcast where we ask questions, examine scripture, and seek truth. I'm your host, Andre Franklin, and I want to welcome you to another episode of the Berean Podcast. Why is it called Berean? In Acts 17, 10 through 12, it says, The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea. And when they arrived, they went into the Jewish synagogue. Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica. They received the word with all eagerness, examining the scriptures daily to see if these things were so. Many of them therefore believed, with not a few Greek women of high standing as well as men. So these people examined the scripture to make sure what they were receiving was true. And that's what we do on this podcast. So I'm going to welcome you again and thank you for uh your time. And so the question is who is Jesus? Okay, who is he? If you asked a hundred people on the street, you uh you would get a hundred different answers, right? Uh but as Bereans, our foundation of truth is not in the opinions of culture, right? Or the academics or the traditions of men. It's in the scriptures. And when we open the scriptures, we find that Jesus is far more radical, far more demanding, and far more divine than the safe version the world likes to talk about. Right? So that's our topic for today, and I'd like you to journey with me through the scriptures as we unpack who Jesus actually is. Okay, so there was a famous atheist, turned Christian. His name is C.S. Lewis. Um, if you know about the uh the books and the movies called Chronicles of Narnia, he is the author of uh those stories. Uh but he was an atheist and he turned Christian and he came up with an idea called the Trilemma. It's the trilemma. And it says, or it states, if Jesus claimed to be God, right, he is either a liar, a lunatic, or he is Lord. Okay, so then that begs the question: who did Jesus claim to be? Let's get into the scriptures. All right. So in the Gospel of John, we're gonna start. Um, John opens up the book with a very powerful first chapter. Okay, specifically John 1, 1 through 13, and then verse 14. Okay, so we're gonna read it. Okay, John 1, 1 through 13, it says, In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. He was in the beginning with God, all things came into being through him, and apart from him nothing came into being that has come into being. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. There came a man sent from God whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify about the light, so that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but he came to testify about the light. There was the true light which coming into the world enlightens every man. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, and the world did not know him, he came to his own, and those who were his own did not receive him. But as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in his name, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. Now, here is where it gets interesting, okay? Um, to the Jewish readers, because remember, John, who was a Jew, was writing to the Jewish people. So to the Jewish reader, verses one through 13 is simply um poetic. And they would think John was simply writing a beautiful uh uh standard Jewish meditation on how uh God's spoken word built the universe. Okay, so verses one through thirteen, they just see it as poetry, okay? Now, verse 14 is the shocker, okay? And it says, and the word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we saw his glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. Now, this is where John split from mainstream Jewish thought, right? So to a first century Jew, the idea that the eternal, uncreated word of God could compress itself into human skin where sandals bleed, die, this was blasphemy in their culture. God was entirely transcendent. He could not become a physical human. This is what they were thinking when they were reading this. This is blasphemy, right? So the Jewish readers, they did not struggle with John 1.1 because they already believed God's word was divine and eternal and part of God's identity. They struggled because John claimed that this abstract cosmic word was actually a specific living man named Jesus. Now, that is what John says about Jesus. But what does Jesus say about himself? Let's get to it. So we're gonna start with Mark chapter two, verses five through seven. And this is a particular story of uh healing and forgiveness. Okay. So we're gonna start at uh we're actually gonna start at verse one, with the key verses being five through seven, but verse one, it says, When he had come back to Capernaum, several days afterward, it was heard that he was at home, and many were gathered together so that there was no longer room, not even near the door. And he was speaking the word to them, and they came, bringing to him a paralytic carried by four men, being unable to get to him because of the crowd. They removed the roof above him, and when they had dug an opening, they let down the pallet on which the paralytic was lying. Now, the scene is we've outlined the scene where where uh uh uh you know Jesus is teaching, and we have the people who are uh uh the friends, or you could say the the the um the people who helped uh the paralytic down through the roof. Jesus tells the paralytic, son, your sins are forgiven. Now, the scribes immediately think blasphemy, because they know that in Isaiah 43, 25, it says, I, I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake. So when Jesus says, Son, your sins are forgiven, the scribes they thought, so these things were in their head, in their uh uh they thought about it. It was in their hearts, it was in their minds. Now we do see that over and over the gospels note that Jesus knowing their thoughts, or Jesus perceiving the reasoning of their hearts. So here we have Jesus knowing the thoughts of the scribes, knowing the thoughts of the Pharisees, he says to them if we go down to Mark again. If we uh go down to Mark 2, and we hit, let me real quick.

SPEAKER_00 9:15

Let me just make sure. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 9:19

We go down to verse 8. It says, and immediately Jesus perceiving in his spirit that they thus question within themselves, he said to them, Why do you question these things in your hearts? Which is easier to say to the paralytic, Your sins are forgiven, or to say, Rise, take up your bed and walk. But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins, he said to the paralytic, I say to you, rise, pick up your bed and go home. And then verse 12, and he rose immediately, picked up his bed, and went out before them, so that they were all amazed and glorified God, saying, We never saw anything like this. So we see that God is um, we see that Jesus, who was able to read the thoughts of the scribes and the Pharisees, he said, Which is better? To heal or to say, Your sins are forgiven? And he shows them that not only is it better for uh uh uh the sins to be forgiven, he says, Okay, I'm gonna heal you and your sins are forgiven. Right? And so if Jesus can look into a human heart and know the hidden motives, he is not just reading the body language, he is doing exactly what Yahweh claimed and was his own exclusive prerogative in the Old Testament. Now, what we're gonna do is we're gonna go to the famous scripture um where Jesus claims uh divinity. Okay, now in John chapter eight, we see a um we see an instance between Jesus and the Pharisees. And I will urge you to read uh the first part of chapter eight, but in chapter eight, in the first part of chapter eight, uh the Pharisees accuse Jesus of casting out demons by Beelzebub. And he talks to them about the unforgivable sin. Okay. So that is where we are at this point in uh chapter 8. Again, I want you to read that, and uh uh you'll have the full context of that. But specifically, what we're gonna do is go to John 8, verse 53 through 59.

SPEAKER_00 12:38

John 8, verses 53 to 59, and we'll go ahead and read that.

SPEAKER_01 12:44

It says, verse 53, surely, and this is the Pharisees speaking to Jesus, surely you are not greater than our father Abraham, who died. The prophets died too. Whom do you make yourself out to be? Jesus answered, If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing. It is my father who glorifies me, of whom you say he is our God. And if you have not come to know him, but I know him, and if I say that I do not know him, I will be a liar like you. But I do know him and keep his word. Your father, Abraham, rejoiced to see my day, and he saw it and it was glad, and he was glad. So the Jews said to him, You are not yet fifty years old, and y have you seen Abraham? Jesus said to them, Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am. Therefore they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple. Now I want to I want to break something down for you, because you might be thinking, well, what's the big deal? They uh they just wanted to stone him, of course. So the Jewish people of the first century, they were not confused about Jesus' claims. They were the most rigorous, strictly monotheistic people in history. When they heard him, they did not ask, are you a prophet? They reacted with outrage, stones, and calls for execution. So I want to go back. I want to go back to uh the Old Testament, the Torah. In Leviticus 24, 16, I want to read to you what it says. It says, Moreover, the one who blasphemes the name of the Lord shall surely be put to death. All the congregation shall certainly stone him. The alien as well as the native, when he blasphemes the name, shall be put to test, or shall be put to death. So we see in the law, the Mosaic law, anyone who blasphemes the name of the Lord, their judgment is to be stoned, that all the congregation will pick up stones and stone him. Fast forward, we go to John 8, verses 58. And it says, again, Jesus said to them, Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am. Therefore they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple. Now, what is again so important about the phrase, I am? Again, what why is that so important?

SPEAKER_00 16:07

Why did the the the the Jews pick up stones to kill him? We gotta go back again to the old testament. And we're gonna go to Exodus chapter 3, and we're gonna go to verse 14.

SPEAKER_01 16:30

Alright. So this is um Exodus chapter 3. This is the story of the burning bush and Moses. Moses was in the wilderness, and he saw uh burning bush, and in that that uh uh that burning bush was God, specifically the angel of the Lord. If you were in the last episode, you knew or you heard or you saw how we broke down um the angel of the Lord. Um so in the bush was the angel of the Lord, or it was God same thing. So we're gonna go down to verse 14. This is what God is saying to Moses out of the bush. So Exodus 3, verses 14 says, God said to Moses, I am who I am. And he said, Say this to the people of Israel. I am has sent me to you. We'll read that again. God said to Moses, I am who I am. And he said, Say this to the people of Israel. I am has sent me. So if we now fast forward to John and the the interaction that Jesus has with the Jewish leaders and the people and the scholars and the scribes, we now understand why they picked up stones to stone him. They knew exactly what was going on. Jesus was claiming the holy name of God who was in the burning bush. Because in the burning bush, we see that it was God. When we went to verse uh 14, it says I. He said, I am who I am. And it was the God of uh uh um Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And here Jesus is claiming that title. And so we see that because of that, they picked up the stones to stone him. So as we said, the violence was there because they knew exactly uh what the penalty was for blaspheming the name of God. Right? They did not grab stones because they thought he was a nice moral teacher. They grabbed stones because they believed he had just committed the highest form of blasphemy, claiming the name of Yahweh. Their reaction is the definitive proof that they understood his claim. We're gonna go down to John 10 in verse 30 through 33.

SPEAKER_00 19:35

John 10 verses 30 to 33.

SPEAKER_01 19:41

And this is another claim that that Jesus made. And there was another reaction of the Jewish people that is a telling reaction.

SPEAKER_00 19:55

So we're gonna go to verse 30 down to 33.

SPEAKER_01 20:03

So John 10, uh verse verse uh 30 says, I and the father are one. And then verse 31, the Jews picked up stones again to stone him. Jesus answered them, I have shown you many good works from the Father. For which of them are you going to stone me? And now here is the powerful key. Listen to how the Jews um answered Jesus. The Jews answered him, It is not for a good work that we are going to stone you, but for blasphemy, because you, being a man, make yourself God. So they knew exactly what he was talking about. When he says, I and the Father are one, they were not confused. When he said before Abraham was, I am, they were not confused. They knew exactly what he was saying, which is why they reacted the way they did. Many times you'll hear people who are the proponents or the uh uh the opponents of Jesus being God, they'll say, well, uh uh, you know, he said I and the Father are one. That's not what they meant. Oh, he said before Abraham was I am. That's not what that's not what Jesus meant. I'll tell you uh what he means. And the most important thing that we have to understand and know as Bereans is that we have to go by the reaction of the people. Yes, it's important what Jesus said. Yes, it's important how he claimed, but it doesn't matter if the people did not react. These are Jewish people that know their uh uh they know their faith, they know um everything about the Mosaic law, and they know that, hey, if you are saying this, this is blasphemy. We need to, we need to take care of this. So the reaction is very telling to what is going on. And if we just take the scripture at face value, we have to understand or we have to see that, hey, there is something going on here because the Jews would not react in this way if Jesus was just saying words. But he knew exactly what he was saying because those were the clues of, hey, this is who I am, this is what I'm claiming, and they knew exactly what was going on. Um, there is another um instance of reactionary uh uh uh proof from the Jewish people. We go to Matthew 26, verses 63 through 66. So Matthew 26 verses 63 through 66. So this is uh when Jesus was arrested and he comes before the high priest. They have a conversation and the the the high priest is talking and he's he's he's asking, are you who people say that you say that you are? Right? But we'll uh we'll go to verse 63. It says, But Jesus kept silent, and the high priest said to him, I adjure you by the living God that you tell us whether you are the Christ, the Son of God. Jesus said to him, You have said it yourself. Nevertheless, I tell you, hereafter you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of power and coming on the clouds of heaven. Now here is the reaction. Then the high priest tore his robes and said, He has blasphemed. What further need do we have of witnesses? Behold, you have heard the blasphemy. What do you think? And they answered, He deserves death. Now, this claim that Jesus says is from Daniel 7. Again, we go back to the Old Testament. Now let's read it. Daniel 7, verses 13 through 14. This is uh uh Daniel, and he says, I kept looking in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven, one like a son of man coming, and he came up to the ancient of days, he was presented before him, and to him the son of man was given dominion, glory, and a kingdom, that all the peoples, nations, and men of every language might serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which will not pass away, and his kingdom is one which will not be destroyed. So again, reaction. The high priest tears his robes and yells, What further witnesses do we need? You have heard his blasphemy. They know what he's talking about, they know the scriptures, they know the Torah, they know the prophets, they know the law, they understand exactly what's going on. So tearing one's clothes in the Jewish culture was a specific prescribed reaction to blasphemy or to sorrow. So, by doing this, the highest religious authority in Israel officially categorized Jesus' claim as a claim to deity. Because if he's claiming to be God, then that is a claim to deity. If it's blasphemy, then it's a claim to be God. It cannot be blasphemy unless they understand: hey, you're doing something that you're not supposed to do. You're doing, you're claiming something that the law says you're not supposed to claim. So what are you doing? And we see the reaction: picking up stones, renting clothes. This is the reaction that tells the whole story. So Jesus is not just claiming things and it's going over people's heads. He's claiming these things in a Jewish way that the Jews understand. Gentiles, who are people who are outside of the Jewish culture and faith, would not understand what Jesus was talking about at that time. Because they didn't have the law, they didn't have the Torah, they didn't have the Tanakh or the Old Testament to put all the pieces together. They didn't have that, but the Jews did. And that's exactly why Jesus spoke the way he did. Now, we spend so much time debating what Jesus meant. We write books, we host uh seminars, and we look at Greek lexicons, um, we do all these things, but have we ever stopped to look at the people who were actually standing there? We believe that we have the answer. So many people believe they have the answer. But let's look at the people that were there. When Jesus spoke, the crowds didn't say, oh, what a humble teacher. They didn't say, oh, he's a great example for us all. They were offended, they were furious, they were terrified. Why? Because they knew exactly what he was saying. If Jesus was only a man, the Jewish leaders would have just ignored him or debated him like they debated other rabbis. But they couldn't ignore him. They couldn't debate him. They had to kill him. Their reaction is the clearest historical proof that Jesus was not a good teacher who was misunderstood. He was a man who claimed to be God of their fathers, and they reacted exactly how a devout monotheistic people would react to someone claiming to be Yahweh. So, friends, I want to ask you if the people who walked the dusty roads with him heard his voice and saw his miracles, were so convinced that he was claiming to be God that they were willing to kill him for it. Why do we today try so hard to explain it away?

SPEAKER_00 30:07

Which brings me to the next um breakdown, which is the parallels of the Old Testament to the New Testament.

SPEAKER_01 30:22

And I know you've heard where the New Testament is the Old Testament revealed, and the Old Testament is the New Testament concealed, where we have the revelation of the Old Testament brought through the New Testament and the writers, the apostles who got the revelation from the Holy Spirit. So when we go back with this new understanding and knowledge of the revelation, now we can piece together the different scriptures and places that we see it coming into light. So in the Old Testament, God is the only creator. And he specifically says he did it alone and by himself. In Isaiah 44, 24, he says, I am the Lord who made all things, who alone stretched out the heavens, who spread out the earth by myself. Now in the New Testament, in Colossians 1.16, it says, For by him, which is Jesus, all things were created. All things were created through him and for him. So if Yahweh created everything by himself, but the New Testament says everything was created through Jesus, the only way to reconcile these is to recognize that Jesus is in fact the same Yahweh. Now, we will also go to Isaiah 44, 6, and this is what we call the first and last parallel. The first one was creator. This one is first and last. So in Isaiah 44, 6 it says, Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel, and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts, I am the first and I am the last. When Jesus claims it, he is not just claiming a title. He is claiming to be the God who holds everything together, who holds the beginning and the end and all of history in his hand. Next, we have the Savior parallel. There is perhaps no more common refrain in the Old Testament than the exclusivity of God as the only Savior. Again, we are in Isaiah. Isaiah 43, 11 says, I, I am the Lord, and besides me there is no Savior. In the New Testament, Titus chapter 2, verse 13 says, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. Now, when it comes to salvation, if Isaiah says only Yahweh is the Savior, and the New Testament says Jesus is the Savior, we are forced to conclude that they are one and the same. If we take the scriptures at face value. This is a beautiful, intimate parallel that hits the heart of everything. In Psalm 23, 1, it says, The Lord is my shepherd. In Ezekiel 34, 11, it says, For thus says the Lord God, behold I, I myself will search my sheep and will seek them out. Now in the New Testament, we have John 10, and you can read John 10, it's an absolute beautiful chapter. But in verse 11, it says, This is Jesus speaking, I am the good shepherd, and the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. So we have the psalmists and we have the prophets who were looking for God to come and care for his flock. Jesus doesn't say, I am sent by the shepherd. He says, I am the shepherd. And then we're gonna go to the Lord of all parallel. Now, this relates to how the New Testament authors took the Hebrew concept of Kyros, which is Lord. Now, a quick history lesson. Um in the Old Testament, the old the Old Testament was written in Hebrew. Um during the time before Jesus, um the Old Testament was translated into Greek. We call that the Septuagint. Um, so in the Septuagint, uh the word for Lord, which is Yahweh in Hebrew, in Greek it's Kyrios. So the same uh uh translation of Yahweh is now Kirios in Greek. So it means the same thing, it's just in a different language. So in the Old Testament, we have uh Deuteronomy 10, 17, which says, For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of Lords. Then in New Testament, we go to Revelation 7, uh uh Revelation 17, 14, it says, For he is Lord of Lords and King of kings, and those with him are called and chosen and faithful. So when the apostles call Jesus Lord of Lords, they aren't just giving him a title of respect. They are using the specific language that the Old Testament uses to describe the absolute sovereign supremacy of the God of Israel. And that takes us to the denial. There are groups who deny these scriptural facts. Um it's helpful to understand the landscape of these groups just so that we have an understanding of um truth, and we are able to identify as Christian, but reject um uh those the things that they say. So there are groups of people who claim to be Christian, but they reject the historic and Trinitarian understanding of Jesus as God. So these are non-Trinitarian movements, understanding their positions, right, and why they differ is going to help us sharpen our arguments and our beliefs, and it will solidify what it is that we believe. Now, the first group is the Jehovah's Witness. They believe Jesus was the first thing that God created. They often identify him with the archangel Michael. He is a God, lowercase G, a mighty being, but he's not the almighty God. They view the Holy Spirit also not as a person, but as God's active force. Um, this directly clashes with the scripture we just broke down, which is the I am claim in John 8, 58, and the opening of John's gospel, which was the word was God. They hold that God is exclusively the Father. Jesus is viewed as a great man, a prophet, or an exalted being who was begotten or conceived by God's power, but he lacks a divine nature. They often view Son of God as a title of his unique relationship with the Father, rather than an ontological statement about his nature. Um, and this view struggles with passages like Colossians 2.9, where in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and the worship Jesus receives from the disciples. Uh, the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-day Saints, the Mormons. While they do honor Jesus as a divine and the creator, they also do not hold to the definition of the triune nature of God or the Trinity. They view the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as three distinct separate beings who are one in purpose and will rather than one in substance or essence. They also believe in eternal progression where Jesus became a God. They also believe that they themselves can reach that same level that Jesus did. Um, historic Christianity maintains that Jesus is eternally God, not a being who progressed and became that to Godhood or achieved it through a process. He is eternally the Son of God who is God. Now, we want to always examine the scriptures, and we want to be clear about what the word says. So in the Bible, it says that God alone is to be worshipped. You can write these down if you're if you're listening. Exodus 20, 20, verse 3, Matthew 4, 5, verse 10. And the argument is in the New Testament, Jesus is repeatedly worshipped. Matthew 14, 33, Matthew 28, 9, John 9 38, Hebrews 1 6. Now, if Jesus were a created being or uh just a prophet or just a man, um he would be guilty of allowing and encouraging idolatry. And if he is a he was uh he came in the way of the Jewish law and tradition. So he would not be a good teacher if he did that. Now, if the Bible says God alone is to be worshipped, but the Bible also shows Jesus receiving worship, what is the only logical conclusion? Now, the nature of the son is another thing that non-Trinitarians often argue, that because that Jesus is the Son, he must be subordinate to the Father, like a human son is to a human father. In the ancient Jewish context of this, to be the Son of God was to share the nature of the Father. John 5.18 states that the Jews wanted to kill Jesus because he called God his own father, making himself equal with God. We just talked about how they reacted to his claims about him and his father being one. So again, they knew what was going on. And they clearly understood his claim to sonship as a claim to equality. Now, did the people in the first century understand Jesus to be claiming a human-style sonship, as some people say, or did they understand his claim as a clear declaration of equality with the Almighty? Now, most of these groups they rely on specific translations or uh interpretations that prioritize a hierarchical view of God, where the Father is the only true deity, and then everything falls underneath. We can't just look at the verses that that mention the Father's authority, but we also have to look at the verses that describe Jesus in eternal existence. So in Micah 5.2, in John 1.1, and in Revelation 1.8, we see that Jesus, or we see that the the um the eternal existence of Jesus is there. John 1.1, we see in the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. We go to Micah 5.2, and it says, But you, O uh Bethlehem, Ephra, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, and you shall come forth for me, one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days. So it says, the one who is to be ruler in Israel. This points to Jesus. Because the ruler who is going to be in Israel, who shall come forth for me, because this is God speaking in uh uh Micah 5, it says, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days. And then if we go to Revelation 1.8, we will see the other declaration. So in Revelation 1.8, it says, I am the Alpha and the Omega, says the Lord God, who is and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty. Now, can theology be consistent if it has to ignore or redefine verses that clearly attribute Almighty titles like Alpha and Omega to Jesus? If we cannot fit the doctrine within the scriptures, then it is for us to reexamine our doctrine so that it can fit with the scriptures. As we close out today's episode, I want to take a moment to pull back and bring this right into your room, your car, or your headphones. On this show, we talk a lot about different concepts, truths, and ideas. But at the end of the day, everything we discuss lands at the feet of the ultimate reality. Your relationship with the creator of the universe. Now, the baseline human reality is that left to our own devices, we are carrying a weight we were never meant to bear. We try to build our own ladders of good deeds and self-improvement or moral effort to prove that we are strong and that we are enough. But those ladders leave us exhausted and falling short of a holy God. The scriptural reality is that our sin separates us from him. And the trajectory of that separation is spiritual death and judgment. But here's the good news. While we were completely stuck in our brokenness, God climbed down the ladder to get to us. Jesus stepped into our reality, took the death sentence we owed, died in our place, and rose from the grave to conquer the curse once and for all. Jesus died for you, and he died for me. But you cannot hear the truth of Jesus and remain neutral. The Bible says there are two ways or two things needed to step off of the path of brokenness and onto the path of eternal life, which is repentance and faith. Now, repentance isn't just saying I'm sorry because you feel bad. Repentance is a U-turn. It is looking at your self-effort, your sin, and your rebellion and saying, I am walking away from that. I am done trying to be my own Savior. And faith isn't just an intellectual belief that Jesus existed. Faith is trust. It is casting the entire weight of your eternity onto his finished work. It's saying, Lord, I'm letting go of my own strength, and I am trusting completely in your rescue. So if you're listening to this right now and you know you are still carrying the weight of your own past, your own guilt, your own sin, you don't have to wait until you clean yourself up. Christ died for you exactly as you are. Right now, right where you are, you can cry out to him. Repent and put your total trust in the king who died and rose again for you. The Bible promises that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Romans 10, 9 says that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. So don't leave this episode carrying the weight of guilt, carrying a debt that has already been paid for. Step into the victory of Jesus today and make the decision to follow Christ. Now, if you want to know more about what it means to follow Jesus, please reach out to the Berean Podcast at Outlook.com or find a local church that you can join and uh uh fellowship and have community with. Or you can also go online. My brother has a church that is called Creation Church. And if you just go online, you uh you type that in uh creationchurch.com, you'll find it. And if you need to join a church that is about uh speaking truth and bringing people to God and uh discipleship, uh that's the church you want to go to. So until next time, the battle is won. The king is on the throne, and that is the good news. Less opinions, more scripture, let the Bible speak.

SPEAKER_00 50:54

This is the Berean Podcast.